Over the last 48 hours there were 2 emergency button activations on TPS, thankfully both due to error (one human and one technical). What is confirmed however is that TPS does indeed set the status bit to +2, (eg Talkgroup ID 4122 would become Talkgroup ID 4124 upon activation of the radios emergency button), so thankfully they have NOT gone the way of OPP as of yet. Here's another interesting thing to note, one of the activations was of a 55 Divisional officers' radio, and as we know 55 is patched usually with 53, well the usual patch "vanished" at the push of his emergency button and 55 was on its own (no longer patched) therefore it was talkgroup +2 status bit, not the patch +2 etc... So if we DO program our radios to monitor the system with +2 on the status bits it DOES seem to work for ALL talkgroups (at the moment).
Off of the technical part of this discussion for a moment and a personal reflection; I am noticing the "tone" of the dispatchers voice as of late switch from concern to displeasure at the activation of an emergency alarm, I think they are getting more than their fair share of activations and the dispatchers are starting to get annoyed; which may cause a policy change as to what happens when the button is hit in the future. Perhaps it won't "lock up" the channel or something... anyway, just a thought...